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DEMOCRACY 

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THE TRUSTS 



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Put not your trust \n Trusts." 

C. F. K. 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






Chap._i.l__. Copyright No. 
Shelf___J_5_ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



DEMOCRACY 

AND 

THE TRUSTS 



ADDRESS BY 
EDWIN B. JENNINGS 

Author of " People and Property," etc., etc, 



THE 



Bbbcy press 

PUBLISHERS 

114 

FIFTH AVENUE 

Condon NEW YORK IHontreal 



822S3 



p— 

Library of Congress 

Two Copies Received 
NOV 30 1900 

NOV 30 1900 

SECOND COPV 

0«llv«rad to 
ORDER DIVISION 

D^ 13 19Q Q 






> 






Copyright, 1900, 

by 

THE 

Hbbey press 

in 

the 
United States 

and 
Great Britain. 



It 



All Rights Reserved. 



" Go East, Young Man, and Grow Up with the Trusts." 



TO 

Hon. M. L. LOCKWOOD, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

President, American Anti-Trust League. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 

. Mr. Edwin B. Jennings, the author of this 
book, was born in New York City in 1855. 
He comes of good American stock. He was 
educated in the College of the City of New 
York, and is a civil engineer by profession. 

He is a good public speaker and has written 
and lectured on Trusts for some years, with 
gratifying success. 

His book, (< People and Property," was pub- 
lished in February, 1900. He had the honor 
of being a New York delegate to the Chicago 
National Anti-Trust Conference, where he gave 
an address on (< The Standard Oil Trust." 

THE PUBLISHERS. 



Democracy and Trusts. 



The ancient mythology tells us of a certain 
personage who destroyed any who opposed him, 
by making himself invisible and simply breath- 
ing upon. them. I think he was named Nyc- 
teus. Never mind the name, though — it might 
have been Old Nick, or any old name. 

This was some time a fable, but now the 
time gives it proof. It is in Free America 
to-day, a hard, actual fact, proven by official 
records. No campaign of Napoleon was ever 
more relentless in its way than the onslaught 
of the Trusts has been upon American insti- 
tutions and principles. To simply state those 
principles, and then state the principles of the 
Trusts, or rather their methods (they have 
no principles) ; the mere statement proves them 
to be in conflict with each other. 

The Trusts cannot exist in a free country; 

7 



Democracy and Trusts. 

and that means that we must destroy them or 
they will surely destroy us. 

Now, when I use the word "Trust," I mean 
any illegal combine of men controlling a 
monopoly, like the Standard Oil Trust for in- 
stance. I am aware that there are good trusts 
as well as bad. But the good ones are mighty 
hard to find, even with the most improved 
searchlight. Against the good ones, I haven't 
a word to say. I may say, though, that my 
remarks interest ladies as well as gentlemen, 
for this is a vital question affecting every man, 
woman and child in this Democracy. 

For instance, Mr. Dowe, of the Commercial 
Travellers' Association, has shown how the 
Trusts have thrown thousands of good men 
out of employment. Well, when the income 
stops, who suffers more that the wife and child? 
The husband may go out to battle with the 
world, and be nerved by the conflict; but the 
wife must suffer and be still. Nay, more ; she 
must keep a brave and smiling face, though 
inwardly her heart be full to breaking. So 
that the women of America are also forced to 



Democracy and Trusts. 

ponder these matters. At our National Con- 
vention at Chicago, in an audience of over four 
thousand people fully half were ladies. 

Now, anyone who thinks seriously of the 
present condition of this Democracy, must see 
cause for grave alarm. 

One fact stands out with fatal emphasis. 
The wealth of America, the property of the 
people, is rapidly being grabbed by a very few 
men. These men count their fortunes, not by 
millions, but by hundreds of millions. These 
multi-millionaires are always directors of some 
Trust or directors of some Railway, or both. 
Now, why are they directors in Railways or 
Trusts, or both? 

For the very simple reason that the Trusts 
have plundered the people by means of the 
Railways. As the Hon. M. L. Lockwood put 
it to the Industrial Commission of Washing- 
ton, "What difference does it make whether 
you are robbed by a highwayman, using a 
pistol, or by an Oil King using a railway ?" 

Their method I will show fully later on. 

First let us ask this question : "Why have we 
so many Anarchists, Communists, Nationalists, 

9 



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Democracy and Trusts. 

Socialists, Single-Taxists, Populists, Anti- 
Imperialists, Anti-Trustists, and others on the 
lists?" 

It means that this Democracy is becoming 
a house divided against itself. We all know 
such a house cannot stand. Of course this 
ominous result has been brought on by more 
than one cause; but I take the ground that 
the mightiest cause of all is the Evil of the 
Trust System. It casts a black shadow wher- 
ever Industry springs up and Commerce flour- 
ishes. Whatever else the Trusts may be, 
we may be sure of this — they are un-American, 
they are un-Democratic. 

Indeed, I venture a proposition right at the 
start which may seem bold, but which I intend 
to show is perfectly true. If most of the 
Trusts in this Democracy were hung in a big 
basket over the bottomless pit, it would be a 
mighty good thing. And it would be a better 
thing if some good citizen should come along 
with a sharp knife and cut the rope ! 

In order to be perfectly logical and clear, 
these great questions should be discussed on 

JO 



Democracy and Trusts. 

broad principles of Political Economy. Every 
true statesman must take account of these laws, 
or the country will suffer eventually. By the 
way, you may have heard Political Economy 
defined as the art of not wasting money in the 
purchase of votes. That is, don't buy more 
than actually needed for the election. That, 
however, is not the kind of Political Economy 
I refer to. 

As our business and industrial relations 
grow more important, these laws gain more 
importance every day. 

Correct principles of Political Economy 
fully carried out should accomplish nothing 
less than the Abolition of Poverty. 

We have achieved Political Independence, 
but we have not gained Industrial Freedom. 

As regards National Wealth, Political Econ- 
omy recognizes three great Divisions, namely : 
The Gaining, the Sharing, the Using of 
Wealth. 

We are well up in the First Department. 
In the Gaining of Wealth, America leads the 
World. Why, the most remarkable thing in 

ti 



Democracy and Trusts. 

the History of the World for the Nineteenth 
Century has been our wonderful Development 
of Industrial Resources, and consequent Pro- 
duction of Wealth. 

But when we reach the second stage — the 
Sharing or Distribution of Wealth — our Ship 
of State is in very serious danger of striking 
on the rocks of Monopoly and going down with 
all on board! Though not with all of us. 
The Trustees who have been cunning enough 
to organize these gigantic Trusts will surely 
have some lifeboats for their own precious 
selves. 

No doubt of that. No doubt also that just 
as the American people grappled with the 
question of Political Liberty in '76 — so 
must we grapple with the question 
of Industrial Liberty now! In other 
days Might made Right. To-day Wealth 
means Power. Industrial Power — Social 
Power — Religious Power — Political Power. 

There is no sort of doubt that the Wealth 
of this Democracy is to-day mainly in the 
power of the Trusts. I mean always by the 



J2 



Democracy and Trusts. 

word Trust, any combine controlling a monop- 
oly, or trying to do so. 

The Standard Oil Trust declares dividends 
this year at the rate of Eighty Million dollars, 
on a capital of One Hundred Million; part of 
that probably water. Most of the Eighty Mil- 
lions goes to the nine trustees. Most of that 
goes to one man. 

That man has a dangerous power. His im- 
famous record shows that he will use that 
power without scruple, and as a hypocrite. 
He will use it in Government and in Politics, 
and in Church and State. 

The Nine Trustees are equally unscrupulous. 
They are accountable to no one. They con- 
spire with the Railways with irresistible power 
to carry out their schemes. How ? By means 
of THE SECRET REBATE. That's what 
Mr. Lockwood referred to. 

The Secret Rebate gives these Conspirators 
such rates on the People's Railways that they 
can practically ruin all honest competitors. 
The Railways are Public Highways. Rates 
should be public, and the same to all. A 



13 



i 



Democracy and Trusts. 

secret rebate, or drawback, however, is paid 
back to these Public Highwaymen. 

Havemeyer, of the Sugar Trust, says, "The 
Tariff is the Mother of Trusts." Well, the 
Secret Rebate is the Father, and a terrible 
brood of Evils have sprung from them both. 

The effect of present conditions is not like 
that of a power lifting up all of us — as it 
should be — it is like that of a wedge, separat- 
ing society, and making the rich richer, and 
the poor poorer. All-of-Us allow Some-of-Us 
to get the best of the Rest-of-Us. 

Why, to-day we must spend ten million dol- 
lars a year for charity in the City of New 
York alone — that is, on the small island of 
Manhattan. 

Yet in spite of that immense sum spent for 
relief, one out of ten on the island is buried as a 
pauper. 

Charity! to Americans! The American 
people do not want Charity, but Justice! If 
they receive not Justice, beware lest they take 
Revenge ! 

Charity may lift the drink of wine to the 
victim on the cross — but Justice demands that 

J4 



Democracy and Trusts. 

the man be taken down. Revenge may say, 
Woe to the hand that nailed him there unjustly ! 
Charity may give bread to the starving work- 
man. Justice demands that there be no starv- 
ing workman in a land of plenty. Revenge 
cries for the blood of those robbers who 
brought him to starvation ! 

Now, Wealth is the blood of the Body Poli - 
tic. Just as to pierce the heart and thus divert 
the blood that has been produced — to divert 
it from the natural course of distribution is to 
bring death to the Physical Organism; so to 
pervert just laws of Distribution of Wealth 
is to bring death to the Body Politic: that is 
the State: that means for us this Democracy. 
If we seek to find the reason of ruined cities, 
and of dead civilizations, we shall find it here. 
Beacon lights — warnings for our guidance are 
also here. 

Hence make a careful note of this fact : The 
Prosperity of a People is not gauged by the 
mere amount of its Wealth, but by the Dis- 
tribution of that Wealth. Plenty of blood in 
the body circulating naturally means health; 

J5 



Democracy and Trusts. 

but congestion of that blood in the brain means 
Death. 

So, when Goldsmith said: 

'till fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where Wealth accumulates and men decay," 

he only stated a truth of Political Economy. 

That is now the condition of America — a 
dangerous case — a very dangerous condition. 

We allow that Everything in America is the 
Property of the People. Oh, yes. That's all 
right. It all belongs to the People. Well, 
let's count it up. What do we own? We 
have about seventeen hundred and fifty million 
acres of Land, and we have Property of other 
kinds, valued at thirty-four thousand million 
dollars, free and clear. We are a large nation 
of thirteen million families, counting five to a 
family. This is according to the 1890 census. 
We get a better idea, though, if we see what 
each family would have, supposing the nation's 
property equally portioned out. One hundred 
and thirty acres of Land, also other Property 
to the value of twenty-five hundred dollars. 

\6 



Democracy and Trusts. 

Contentment might then step in at the door, 
and Poverty fly out of the window. 

Are we perfectly happy and contented as 
a People? Not by a very large majority. 

Our country is full of abject poverty, of 
discontent, of Panics and of Strikes. As the 
Irish orator once said : "Gintlemen, the apple 
cf dishcord has been fired into our midsht 
Faith! av we do not nip it in the bud, it will 
burst into a conflagration that will bury us all 
beneath its ragin' wathers." 

His flowers of metaphor became somewhat 
mixed on the rushing flood of his oratory; but 
he was all right in the main idea. 

The Execution of the Anarchists in Chicago, 
— the riots and bloodshed in the oil and coal 
regions — the shooting of workers at Home- 
stead by agents of the Steel King — the shooting 
of miners at Cceur d'Alene by agents of the 
Oil King — our Anarchists, Communists, 
Nationalists, Populists, Single-Taxists, Social- 
ists, Anti-Trustists, and others on the lists, 
our countless "Strikists" — all point the same 
way. This is a house divided against itself. 

There is a reason for all this trouble. It 

J7 



Democracy and Trusts. 

is this : Poverty in the midst of Plenty. We 
have now in this Democracy the most abject 
Poverty, side by side with boundless Wealth. 

Let me give a few examples right in New 
York, where the rags of Poverty brush against 
the silken robes of Opulence. 

On Fifth Avenue, beginning at Fortieth 
Street, are over two miles of millionaires' 
palaces. Some rated at Fifty, Seventy-five, 
One Hundred Millions each. 

This is the richest residential district in the 
whole world. 

The income of one of these multi-million- 
aires — President of Standard Oil Trust — is 
about Four Thousand Dollars an hour. 

Counting Four Thousand Dollars an hour, 
eight hours a day, three hundred working days 
a year, gives him an income of about Ten 
Million Dollars a year. Of course out of this 
he has to support his family. His fortune is 
estimated at over Two Hundred and Fifty 
Million dollars. 

Now this might be good fortune for the 
people generally, if the people generally were 
anywhere near so fortunate. But in fact there 

18 



Democracy and Trusts. 

is a well-founded idea that the Fortunes of 
some men in the Trust Business, simply mean 
the Misfortunes of the rest of us, who are too 
trustful. The hearts of old gave trust, but 
our new heraldry is — Trust — not Hearts. 

The very fact that a man has grabbed two 
hundred and fifty million dollars in thirty-five 
years is presumptive evidence of Fraud. 

Furthermore, all the evidence goes to show 
that the Standard Oil Trust is Eminently Dis- 
honest. Not only Dishonest, but an infernal 
Hypocrite. 

Talk of a house being founded on a rock! 
Why, the towering sky scraper of the Standard 
Oil Trust rests on nothing but the Stone of 
Dishonesty. It bids fair to last just as long. 

But the Standard Oil Trustees are among 
the fortunate. Let me mention a few of the 
unfortunate in this booming year of prosperity, 
1900. 

This is from Harper's Bazar, a standard 
high-class publication, issue of March 17: 

"This is an era of prosperity, yet in New 
York, the centre of prosperity, during the 
blizzard, a woman, whose husband had com- 

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Democracy and Trusts. 

mitted suicide in the horror of no work, stood 
with a baby in her arms and three others cling- 
ing to her skirts in the snow on the streets 
all day, guarding a miserable mess of house- 
hold effects, evicted by a landlord for default 
of rent. 

"This an era of prosperity, yet in the City 
of New York, the centre of prosperity, Maud 
Ballington Booth finds, in noisome under- 
ground cellars, sick and starving ones stretched 
on damp and wretched beds, with rats running 
riot over them, and on the floor above, and 
the next, and the next to the garret, in house 
after house, humanity oozing into a sort of 
existence, turgid with filth and evil. In single 
rooms five, six, and seven families live. Chil- 
dren are naked, parents hopelessly drunk. 
Cold, hunger, crime, feast royally on bodies 
and souls of human beings. 

"An era of prosperity ? Even a more glori- 
ous era — an era of Christianity. Never was 
so much wealth given to charity as now, and 
on the undisputed (?) authority of an eminent 
benefactor, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the rich 



20 



Democracy and Trusts. 

are growing poorer, and the poor are better 
off. 

"Poor rich! Happy poor! Let tenement- 
house and sweat-shop praise Prosperity and its 
prophet." 

Read the book of Jacob A. Riis, of the New 
York Sun, called "How the Other Half 
Lives." The book is authentic and some of 
the cases make your heart sick with despair. 
Mr. Riis told me he knows from personal ob- 
servation that hundreds of men, women and 
children are starving to-day in New York, or 
on the verge. 

Now I have not given these contrasts be- 
tween immense wealth and dire poverty without 
a reason; as I have said, the Laws of Political 
Economy are just as practical as the law of 
gravitation. They are a blamed sight more 
important for most of us, because they concern 
directly the bread-and-butter problem. All 
this poverty and misery of New York along- 
side of overfed wealth is the result of some 
broken law. All history shows that where a 
few live in wanton luxury, many must live in 



21 



Democracy and Trusts. 

squalid poverty to pay for it. One is in a 
measure the indirect cause of the other. 

To-day in this land of plenty there is enough 
and to spare, had but each his fair share, but 
if some few Trustees grab millions and hun- 
dreds of millions by means of their modern 
highway robbery, then the rest of us must suf- 
fer; it cannot be otherwise. The people are 
asleep. We are asleep, and the first thing you 
know, one fine morning we will wake up and 
find ourselves dead : in the power of the Trusts ; 
dead financially ; dead socially ; dead politically. 

President Hadley, of Yale, says we must 
ostracize the Trusts. That's very good when 
you consider that the Trustees are the power 
in the Church and State, in business and 
society. I rather imagine they can ostracize 
us. He wants the Tail to wag the Dog. 

Now we have enough millions in the coun- 
try to go around on a fair basis, not counting 
in robbery and conspiracy. The case is some- 
thing like this. We have Land, Labor and 
Capital. Now let us suppose Lawrence, the 
Landlord, Peter, the Laborer, and Paul, the 
Capitalist, equal partners in business. That 

22 



Democracy and Trusts. 

is fair, because Land, Labor and Capital are 
equal factors in the production of Wealth; 
that is, they are practically equal. Now let 
Lawrence, Peter and Paul go in as equal part- 
ners for a year. Let Ihe profits be $3,000, 
then of course each should have $1,000; in 
Other words, in Political Economy, Land, 
Labor and Capital should practically share and 
rhare alike. But at the end of the year we find 
Paul, the Capitalist, has about $2,500; Law- 
rence, the Landlord, has $500. Then, of 
course, Peter does not have anything. He 
ought to be thankful to escape with his life. 

Has somebody been robbing Peter to pay 
Paul? Yes. The Trusts have, and I will 
show you how. 

Why, the thing is wrong any way you look 
at it. The very object of our Government is v/ 
to secure to all a fair share of its benefits. It 
is monstrous that so few should pile up their 
hundreds of millions while so many lack for 
bread. 

And it all can be shown clearly and scien- 
tifically to be wrong. Allowing that all the 
Wealth in our country is the product of three 

23 



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Democracy and Trusts. 

equal factors, Land, Labor and Capital, let us 
get clear ideas about these. This is very im- 
portant. It is no mere theoretical abstraction, 
but comes right home to the business and the 
hearts and the lives of men. Of course when 
I say "men" I include women, for the men 
embrace the women, and the term "man" of 
course means "mankind." 

Now what is Land? I mean as a technical 
term of Political Economy. Well, Land means 
the Earth; the globe; and that includes water 
as well ; in fact it means all natural advantages ; 
it is the gift of the Creator. Nothing can be 
produced without it. 

Now what is Labor? Well, Labor as a 
technical term, now, is Work: Work, of any 
kind, whether of Body or of Mind. Land and 
Labor together produce Wealth. 

Now, what is Capital? Capital is all 
Wealth used to gain more Wealth. This is 
an important point, for no Wealth is Capital 
while idle. The element of use makes it 
Capital. The coat a tailor makes and wears 
on his back is Wealth, but not Capital. The 



24 



Democracy and Trusts. 

coat he makes and hangs up in his window for 
sale is Capital. 

The farmer working on his land without any 
tools whatever represents Labor. The land 
represents Land. Could the farmer do much 
without any tools whatever? No. The tools 
are Capital. When the farmer speeds the 
plow he is speeding Capital; when thus 
the farmer sows his seed, he is sowing 
Capital. And how about the farmer's 
wife? The house that Jack built may be 
furnished to the Queen's taste, but it is no 
Home until Jack gets his sister, or Charlie's 
sister to keep house for him. Now, here is 
where the ladies come in. House-making is 
of little use without housekeeping. The good 
housewife is just as surely adding to the 
Nation's Wealth as the man who labors in the 
field, the factory or the office. 

Allowing Land, Labor and Capital to be 
equal partners in the gaining of Wealth, it 
follows that they should receive equal parts 
in the sharing of their Wealth. They should 
also take an equal part in the using of their 
Wealth. 

25 



Democracy and Trusts. 

I do not see how our country can ever be 
really prosperous until Land, Labor and Capi- 
tal all alike get their fair share of the country's 
wealth. This is sound Political Economy 
and True Democracy; and Good Scripture. 

Now we have seen that the production of 
Wealth is very effective among us. This 
country ranks the wealthiest nation in the 
world. But having gained our Wealth we 
should fairly share it, and there's the rub. We 
produce enough, no doubt of that, but who 
gets it ? Well, Capital gets most of it ; Capital 
as embodied in the Trusts. The fact is un- 
deniable that they are grabbing all the Wealth 
and all the Power of this country. To the 
Democratic Party comes now the Call, the 
Duty, and the Opportunity of freeing this, our 
Country from their greed and power. 

But how? Well, the first thing is, How did 
they get their wealth? Of course any man 
who honestly earns a thousand dollars has a 
right to it ; but any man who steals a thousand 
dollars or a million dollars, or two hundred 
and fifty million dollars, is a thief. And that's 



26 



Democracy and Trusts. 

the main thing I have against the Trusts. 
Their thievery. 

It is not easy at all to get correct knowledge 
of the ways and methods of the Trusts. 
Such knowledge, though, must be had if we 
would do anything. Hence I give a short 
sketch of the biggest toad in the puddle, the 
Standard Oil Trust. It is confessedly the 
parent and the pattern of them all. 

The lead of Standard Oil has been followed 
by them all. 

Well, along in i860 Colonel Drake "struck 
oil" in Pennsylvania. 

No sooner had his well made known its 
precious flow than all the rush and excitement 
of the California gold fever were again enacted. 

Derricks rose by thousands, seemingly as 
by magic. 

Wells were bored all over the oil country. 
Refineries started up near wells, as Oil City; 
near railway centers, as Buffalo ; near seaports, 
as New York. 

There was plenty for all. The means of re- 
fining were known, and even poor men build- 

27 



Democracy and Trusts. 

ing little stills could add to their works year 
by year, increase their capital and become suc- 
cessful business men. The business was one 
of the most attractive in the world. There 
was a free market, free competition. Other 
industries, connected with oil sprang up and 
flourished. 

Everything seemed prosperous. The val- 
leys of Pennsylvania became busy towns and 
oil fields. The highways were crowded. 
Labor was well employed. 

But now a strange thing happened. Wher- 
ever men moved to discover oil fields, to dig 
wells, or build refineries, to trade in oil, a 
blight fell upon them. This was about 1865. 
Then came the strange spectacle of disman- 
tling and abandoning refineries by the score. 
The market now began so to fluctuate, defy- 
ing reasonable calculation, that the oil business 
seemed to need the skill of a gambler. 

The panic among the people was in propor- 
tion to the work they had done, and the value 
of what they were losing. 

By 1870 the business had grown from noth- 
ing to a net product of 6,000,000 barrels a year, 

28 



Democracy and Trusts. 

using a capital of $200,000,000 and support- 
ing a population of 60,000 people. They had 
devised forms and institutions for the new 
business. They had built up towns and cities, 
with schools, churches, lyceums, boards of 
trade. There were nine daily and eighteen 
weekly newspapers published in the oil region 
and supported by it. 

The people now saw the ripe fruit of all this 
wonderful development being mysteriously 
snatched away from them. 

More than once the public alarm became 
riot. 

This ruin of prosperity without any known 
cause brought Pennsylvania to the verge of 
civil war in 1872, was the principal subject 
before the Legislature that year and forced 
Congress to make an official investigation. 
Many became bankrupt, went insane, com- 
mitted suicide. 

Where every one else failed, however, one 
little group of some half-dozen men were rising 
out of all this havoc and disorder to the wealth 
and power which are now the wonder of the 
business world. 

29 



Democracy and Trusts. 

This combination we will call "The Secret 
Rebaters." To them belongs the dubious 
honor of having discovered practically and put 
into operation the most tremendous instrument 
for making fortunes (at other people's ex- 
pense) ever made use of. The idea was grand 
in its simplicity ; its results have been amazing. 

A rebate is simple, being nothing but a sum 
paid back at the end of a transaction. 

Our Rebaters laid the foundation of their 
colossal fortune by means of a secret agree- 
ment with the Railways to this effect: The 
Railways were to double all freights on oil. 
For instance, suppose the rate a dollar a barrel 
to New York. It would now be two dollars. 
At the end of each month the Railways were 
to pay back as secret rebate to the Combination 
all this increase of $i a barrel. The Railways 
were to give to the secret rebaters another dol- 
lar for each barrel shipped by any one outside 
the Combination. The Railways also, were to 
charge freight rates, as suggested, in order 
to crush outsiders. 

By this dastardly scheme, the Secret Re- 
baters had all independent refiners by the 

30 



Democracy and Trusts. 

throat. They simply had to choke the life 
out of them, which they have done with emi- 
nent success. To-day their capital is $97,000,- 
000, quoted at about 450, making the market 
value over $400,000,000. Their clear profits 
are $80,000,000 this year, according to their 
own declaration. 

The spectacle of these few men at the center 
of things amassing millions, while their com- 
petitors were being driven into bankruptcy or 
suicide, did not pass unnoticed. 

No one knew just what the trouble was, but 
everybody knew that there was something 
wrong. Organizations of Industries, Commit- 
tees of State Legislatures and of Congress, 
Civil and Criminal Courts all over the country 
have been in action on account of them ever 
since. 

They never admit anything, however. 
They are attacked invariably in court by a sud- 
den paralysis of memory or else decline to 
answer questions by advice of counsel. 

By means of Secret Rebate, they had ruined 
most of the independent concerns in the oil 
business. About this time the Trust was 

3! 



Democracy and Trusts. 

formed. The strong concerns put their stock 
in Trust, managed by Trustees. Hence, the 
name. Their next step was to buy up at half- 
price whatever firms still survived; and choke 
off all others. 

About this time also the Rebaters had a bat- 
tle royal with the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
pany. The railroad, seeing the business that 
could be done in oil when properly manipu- 
lated, began to reach out for some themselves. 
This was in 1877. 

The war was bitter, but as the Rebaters had 
with them such companies as the New York 
Central and the L. S. & M. S. and other power- 
ful roads — they got the best of it. The Penn- 
sylvania Railroad surrendered on these terms : 
it was to sell all its refineries and pipe-lines 
and mortgage its oil cars to the Secret Re- 
baters. In 1870 they had organized with $1,- 
000,000 capital. They were now able to give 
their check for $3,000,000 for this one purpose. 

In 1883 they brought such trouble and con- 
fusion to Pennsylvania in other ways that the 
Hon. Franklin B. Gowen was roused to resist 
them. 

32 



Democracy and Trusts. 

As a lawyer and railway president in Penn- 
sylvania, Mr. Gowen ranked as high as Chaun- 
cey M. Depew in New York. While he lived 
he was proud to be recognized in the courts as 
the chief defender of those whom the Standard 
Oil Company sought to crush. In his speech 
before the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1883, 
he said of their deeds in the oil regions : 

"If such a state of facts had been permitted 
by any government in Europe, for six months, 
the crown and sceptre of its ruler would have 
been ground to the dust. I, for one, will sub- 
mit to it no longer. You may say it is un- 
wise for me to attack this wrong, but I have 
attacked it before, and I will again. If I could 
only shake off the other burdens that rest on 
my shoulders, I would feel it my duty to preach 
resistance to this great wrong as Peter the 
Hermit preached the Crusade. I would go 
into every part of this commonwealth and en- 
deavor by the plain recital of the facts to rouse 
up such a feeling and such a power as would 
make itself heard and felt, and by the fair, 
open, honest and proper enforcement of the 



33 



Democracy and Trusts. 

law, right the wrong and teach the guilty 
authors of this infamous tyranny: 

"That truth remembered long, 
When once their slumbering passions roused, 
The peaceful are the strong." 

In 1887 they were found guilty of conspiracy 
in causing the explosion of an independent oil 
refinery in Buffalo owned by C. B. Matthews. 
This was their most indiscreet attempt; it is 
thought that as a rule they crush out competi- 
tors in more quiet ways. 

Our methods to-day are somewhat different, 
but the idea is as old as Theft itself. 

"One simple rule suffices them, the good old 
plan — 
That they shall take who have the power, 
And they shall keep who can." 

According to Henry Lloyd there seems little 
doubt that in 1876 H. B. Payne was elected 
United States Senator, mainly by the Standard 
Oil Company; furthermore it is asserted to- 

34 



Democracy and Trusts. 

day that the Trusts all have representatives of 
some kind in Congress and State Legislatures. 

Mr. George Gunton, who writes in their 
favor, admits that they spend much money in 
lobbying, though he states that they only do 
it to prevent legislation against them. They 
do not need any in their favor. 

The oil business has a mQSt astonishing effect 
on the memory, as hinted above — almost an 
aberration worthy investigation by the medical 
profession. 

When any Trustee can possibly be induced 
to appear before an investigating committee, 
the condition of helpless imbecility to which 
he is instantly reduced is most remarkable. 
When the Secretary was asked the proper name 
of the Combination, he replied, "I do not 
know." 

"Do you understand the practical work of 
refining oil?" 

"1 do not — I have not been inside a refinery 
for ten years." 

"Well, two mills a ton a mile for five hun- 
dred miles would be a dollar a ton?" 



35 



Democracy and Trusts. 

"I am not able to demonstrate that proposi- 
tion." 

"You have some arithmetical knowledge ?" 

"I cannot answer that question." 

"Well, you own the pipe-line to New York?" 

"Yes." 

"What does it cost you to do business on that 
line?" 

"I do not know anything about it." 

Another was a Railway man who had been 
taken into the Trust on account of his value as 
such. 

"Can you tell any of the freight rates your 
company has paid?" 

"I cannot." 

Another Trustee was asked: 

"What is your business, and where do you 
reside?" 

"I decline to answer any question until I can 
consult my counsel." 

"What is the capital stock?" was asked of 
another. 

"I do not know." 

"How much has the capital stock been in- 
creased lately?" 

36 



Democracy and Trusts. 

"I do not know." 

"Where are the meetings of the Standard 
Oil Company held?" 

"I do not know." 

"How many directors are there?" 

"I do not know." 

"Do they own any pipe-lines?" 

"I do not know." 

The President was asked, "What quantity 
of oil was exported by the different concerns 
with which you were connected from the port 
of New York in 1881?" 

"I do not know." 

"How many million barrels of oil were re- 
fined by such concerns in the vicinity of New 
York in 1 88 1?" 

"I do not know how much was refined." 

"Did the concerns with which you were so 
connected purchase over 8,000,000 barrels of 
crude petroleum in 1881 ?" 

"I am unable to state." 

He was asked to give the name of one refin- 
ery running in 1883 not owned or substantially 
controlled by the Trust. 

"I decline to answer." 

37 



Democracy and Trusts. 

* He was asked if he would say that the total 
profits of his Trust for 1887 were not as much 
as $20,000,000. 

"I haven't the least knowledge on that sub- 
ject." 

"Does the Trust keep books?" the Presi- 
dent was asked by Congress. 

"No, we have no system of bookkeeping." 
On further pressure, though, he said, "The 
Treasurer had a record to know what money 
comes in." 

"You have never seen those books?" 

"I do not think I have ever seen those 
books." 

"Has any member of the Trustees ever seen 
those books?" 

"I do not think they have." 

This agrees (in some ways) with the state- 
ments made by W. W. Cook, in his book on 
Trusts — also by the New York World. At 
the meetings of the Trustees a record of their 
doings is read — but at once destroyed. 

"The properties included in your Trusts are 
distributed all over the United States, are thev 
not?" 

38 



Democracy and Trusts. 

"Oh, not all over the United States. They 
are distributed." 

"Are they not distributed, and are they not 
sufficiently numerous to meet the requirements 
of your business from the Atlantic to the Paci- 
fic, and from the Gulf to the Northern Bound- 
ary?" 

"Well, not yet" 

Any one reading this exhibition of helpless 
imbecility is struck dumb with sheer amaze- 
ment. "No, no, we don't know anything; we 
don't remember anything. We don't keep any 
books. We have built up the largest business 
in the world. We employ 60,000 people, 
directly or indirectly. We have declared 
dividends at the rate of eighty million dollars 
for this year. But things just seem to come 
our way. All the oil in America, and a good 
deal in Europe, Asia and Africa, seems to flow 
just where our President wants it to." 

And so they pipe their lays ? and so they lay 
their pipes. 

Just notice the sworn testimony of their 
President, Now either he knows about the 

39 



Democracy and Trusts. 

business which he created or he does not. He 
has sworn that he does not. Therefore, if he 
does know, he stands convicted as a perjurer 
by words out of his own mouth. If he does 
not know, then he stands before his stock- 
holders as a fool. Should the president of any 
other Company in the world make such a dis- 
gusting exhibition of himself, his stockholders 
would demand that he instantly resign. If he 
is a perjurer, his proper place is behind the iron 
bars of a jail. If a fool, his place is not inside 
the gilded bars of a palatial business office as 
president of the mightiest corporation in the 
world. It may be that his proper place is in 
the University to which his millions flow at 
Chicago. Columbia, however, has recently 
been the recipient of his bounty. 

Thus do Oil and Education and Philan- 
thropy and Hypocrisy mix together in our 
progressive age. 

In this connection we must not overlook the 
good that has been done by some Trustees. 
They have endowed universities with millions 
of dollars. They have built churches. They 

40 



Democracy and Trusts. 

are prominent in temperance work ; in mission- 
ary work ; in charities. 

For all this let them have their due credit. 
Unfortunately, however, the Trust System 
as a system must certainly destroy this 
Democracy or we must destroy the 
Trusts. Of course I mean any Trust 
like Standard Oil, which may be 
defined as a combine of legalized pirates con- 
trolling a monopoly. Their capital is like the 
City of Venice. There's a good deal of water 
in it. 

In February, 1900, we held our National 
Anti-Trust Convention at Chicago. At the 
principal meeting we had an audience of over 
four thousand ladies and gentlemen. 

It was clearly shown that the Trusts are 
doing terrible injury to the workers of 
America ; to the common people, to the tax- 
payers, to the bread-winners, to their wives and 
families. Our Government at Washington is 
largely responsible for this. 

If the Attorney-General would only enforce 
the law, the Trusts might be shorn t>f their 

41 



Democracy and Trusts. 

power. If we had an honest and fearless At- 
torney-General, like Frank Monnett, of Ohio, 
the Trusts would be dissolved. 

The Anti-Trust Act of 1890 declares that 
every combination in restraint of trade and 
commerce among the states is a conspiracy. 
It is illegal and void. It is punishable by fine 
and imprisonment. The fault is not with the 
law. It is with the men put in high office by 
the people to enforce the law. 

In a recent case reported in the New York 
Herald it was shown that the Standard Oil's 
confederate in Texas, the Pierce- Waters Co., 
came directly under this ruling. So Standard 
Oil is now illegal in Ohio and Texas. 

Should you attend the play of "The' Little 
Minister," you will notice in the English castle 
there, an ancient suit of armor. Arrayed in 
such a panoply of steel, the Knight of Ivanhoe 
went forth, as told in Scott's immortal words, 
to battle for the right. Against him in the 
lists came forth his enemy accoutred like him- 
self. The knight opposed to Ivanhoe might 
have been a villain, but at least was not a cow- 

42 



Democracy and Trusts. 

ard. Like Richard III., or like Macbeth, "that 
bloodier villain than terms could give him out; 
he set his life upon a cast and he would stand 
the hazard of the die." 

It would not fall in that way now. To- 
day should Ivanhoe stand forth, no defiant 
shout would greet his ears, no burnished 
shield would be opposed to his. He might 
finally descry his enemy crouched beneath the 
sacred banner of the church; and should one 
of them perchance be forced from his retreat, 
no defiant glance would meet his own — nothing 
but the helpless grinning of a fool. 

The Oil Trustees meet to-day in secret 
council; sometimes they hold midnight meet- 
ings. Absolute power is given to their hands. 
A record of their former deeds is read; a 
minute made of this; the record then de- 
stroyed. They need not think the record, 
though, entirely lost; they cannot now destroy 
the work that Henry Lloyd has done in his 
great book on "Wealth against Common- 
wealth." They have never shown that to be 
false. 

Lloyd's record speaks of free competition 

43 



Democracy and Trusts. 

crushed, of families plundered, of churches 
reared for worship, of Universities endowed 
by Standard Oil. Whether the people have 
been plundered in order to build churches, or 
the churches have been built in order to shield 
the plunderers is a question. 

Their infernal web of thievery, religion, 
philanthropy, hypocrisy and business, makes 
one long for the good old times when a man 
who was wronged could set his enemy within 
the reach of his trusty sword, and fight him 
man for man. 

To-day the man who is robbed of his live- 
lihood can fight nothing but an impalpable mass 
of piratical church-members. They are multi- 
millionaires, but have no knowledge of the 
means by which their millions are gained. 

Mr. Dodd, lawyer of Standard Oil, has also 
written a book. He naturally thinks Trusts 
are very good things ; they certainly have been 
good to him. He says that they raise wages, 
for "the more perfect the power of Associa- 
tion, the greater the power of Production, and 
the larger the share of the product which falls 
to the laborer." He also says, "Combinations 

44 



Democracy and Trusts. 

break up the distinction between employer and 
employed. They give the employed an inter- 
est in the business." 

Well, right across the East River there are 
acres of land covered by refineries of Standard 
Oil Trust; if you can discover one workman 
there who has an "interest in the business/' 
that is, who owns any stock, you will certainly 
take the prize as a detective. Dodd's state- 
ment does not agree with facts. He may be 
like the man, though, who propounded a beau- 
tiful theory. But said a practical man, "Your 
theory don't agree with the facts" ; to this he 
calmly replied: "Well, so much the worse for 
the facts." 

To show how Trusts raise wages. In 1897 
a tariff of one-half cent a pound was added 
to sugar for Protection ; that is, to protect the 
American workmen from something or other. 
Protection protects the Carnegie Steel Syndi- 
cate and gives Carnegie an income of about 
$10,000,000 a year, but it is hard to see how it 
protects American workmen. By a stroke of 
the pen, however, this Sugar Tariff added 
millions to the wealth of the Trust. After a 

45 



Democracy and Trusts. 

time, the workmen in the Brooklyn Refinery, 
who had to labor hard ten hours a day, often 
in a temperature of 150 degrees, for about 
twelve cents an hour — these workmen went, 
it is said, to the Sugar King to remonstrate. 
Possibly his mind was intent on getting more 
protection ; at any rate, they got no more wages 
until they went on strike. Their pay is now 
fifteen cents an hour, for ten hours a day. 
The heat is so intense that workmen often fall 
exhausted from the strain. This must be the 
large share which Dodd says "falls to the work- 
men." 

I must say, though, as regards Standard 
Oil, that they pay fairly good wages. In 
their favor also, it must be said, that they have 
brought economy of production to a high state 
of perfection. Their economy of truth, also, 
is most amazing. 

Why are not the Trusts brought to account 
for their crimes? Because they act as im- 
personal and soulless corporations, and dodge 
any personal responsibility. They also dodge 
taxes. Standard Oil should be taxed for over 

46 



Democracy and Trusts. 

$400,000,000. I cannot find that they pay- 
taxes on more than $50,000,000. That means 
$350,000,000 untaxed. That means a loss 
of over $5,000,000 a year hard cash — very 
hard cash — from that trust alone. That adds 
a burden of $5,000,000 a year to those who do 
pay taxes. Somebody has got to pay them. 
We have thought nothing certain, but Death 
and Taxes. Death has not yet left his grip 
in trust, but taxes do not bother them much. 
In the days of '76, Americans fought to the 
death against Taxation without Representa- 
tion. In the days of 1900, our Oily Trustees 
have Representation without Taxation. 
Now all this concerns every citizen. 

Judge Gibbins says concerning the Trusts 
and the People : "One of the two must die, for 
our free institutions cannot live with them. ,, 
Should we perish, this epitaph might well be 
writ upon our tomb: 

This monument has been erected to the 
memory of the greatest Democracy the world 
has ever seen. It was indeed a Government 
of the people. A people whose glorious 

47 



Democracy and Trusts. 

achievements confounded the forebodings .of 
their enemies and turned toward their land the 
hopes of all the Nations : — But now the work 
of Washington, of Lincoln and of Grant has 
been done — done to death. The people trusted ; 
not too wisely, but all too well. 

However, we are not yet dead ; we still live ; 
though I believe in greater danger than most 
of us are aware. Even in the beginning of 
our Nation, Alexander Hamilton said: "Give 
a man power over my subsistence, and he has 
power over the whole of my moral being." 
Or as Shakespeare puts it, "You do take my 
life when you do take the means whereby I 
live." Liberty must be complete on all sides — 
Industrial as well as Religious and Political. 
Trusts like Standard Oil are really traitors 
among us — striking in the dark at the very 
spirit of liberty. They stand not forth avowed 
enemies, like General Lee, at the head of the 
Confederate Army; but as the assassin struck 
down Lincoln, they strike down Industrial 
Freedom. 

They do it secretly and by hired agents. 

48 



Democracy and Trusts. 

Little evidence comes home to the Oil King; 
except the millions and millions of dollars 
piling up almost beyond the power of calculat- 
ing. 

Of course he knows nothing. He does not 
want to know. 

When Matthews' refinery was burned by his 
agent he was attending prayer meeting. When 
the price of oil was recently raised three cents 
a gallon, he was signing his check for one 
hundred thousand dollars for Columbia Uni- 
versity. 

In the Saturday Evening Post, of Phila- 
delphia, Chauncey Depew writes of the Secret 
Rebate quite as a matter of course. The Rail- 
ways generally deny its very existence. Hence 
Depew's admission is important. He says, 
"The freight rate being a secret one, railroad 
agents have the power to build up one busi- 
ness at the expense of another, without the 
knowledge of the managers." 

Yet this is but half the truth ; the fact being 
that freight rates being secret, Railway Man- 
agers have power to build up one business and 

49 



Democracy and Trusts. 

destroy another without the knowledge of the 
Public. 

This is a crime against Democracy. It's a 
violation of the Railway's charter. Railways 
are nothing but Public Highways, with steel 
rails laid on them. All courts have so decided. 
The Supreme Court of the United States in 
November, 1898, held, "that the business of 
a Railway carrier is of a public nature, and 
in performing it he is performing to a certain 
extent a function of the Government, which 
requires him to perform the same service upon 
equal terms to all." It's a public business. 

Now, I am addressing business men — per- 
haps also business women. Does any one be- 
lieve that one man can gain ten million dollars 
a year in a fair, square business? Why, it 
proclaims Fraud on the face of it. 

The fortune of the Oil King is about two 
hundred and fifty million dollars. Just fig- 
ure on that a moment. Why, if Adam — the 
husband of Eve, I mean — (his other name is 
not given), but if Adam were with us to-day 
he would be about six thousand years old. 

50 



Democracy and Trusts. 

We have not his family Bible to corroborate 
that figure, but that is generally considered 
correct. Well, if Adam had cleared forty 
thousand dollars a year for six thousand years, 
he wouldn't have as much as the Oil King 
to-day. 

Yet they claim to sell oil cheap. The howl 
that they lower prices is persistent. People 
seem to believe this — in spite of the very ob- 
vious fact that the very object of a Trust is 
to raise prices. 

In New York to-day we are paying thirteen 
to fifteen cents a gallon for Standard Oil. 
What do you think it cost the Trust to deliver 
that oil to grocers? Ten cents? No. Six 
cents? No. Less than four cents a gallon. 
They deliver it to retailers for less than four 
cents a gallon. We have to pay thirteen to 
fifteen cents. You can figure over two hun- 
dred per cent, profit in that. Further than 
that, the by-products of petroleum, such as 
parafifine — and other fine things — show a large 
profit. Further than that, the Standard Trust 
will export oil to foreigners for about four 
cents a gallon. Americans must pay at least 

51 



Democracy and Trusts. 

thirteen cents at this writing. Should they 
donate another hundred thousand dollars to 
Columbia, the price will of course go up a few 
cents. 

But the question of low prices is not the 
main issue. Even if they did sell oil cheap 
that would not, could not, and should not atone 
for their infernal hypocrisy and treachery. 

Are we going to submit to this gigantic 
system of robbery for the sake of getting oil 
cheap? Are we going to rob Peter to pay 
Paul? And allow John eighty million dol- 
lars a year for planning the robbery? 

Now, I believe I have charged the Oil King 
with nothing but the truth. His infamous 
record is extant and written in very choice 
English — "Wealth against Commonwealth," 
by Henry Lloyd. 

Standard Oil has plundered the people by 
means of the Railways. Allowing that to be 
so, the only way for the people to come by 
their own again is simply to take charge of 
their Railways. 

Public Ownership of Public Property! 

52 



Democracy and Trusts. 

The Railways have betrayed the public. 
As Vanderbilt said : "The Public Be Damned !" 
They have forfeited their charters. They are 
Public Property anyway. 

More than that, Sound Political Economy 
advocates public ownership. It shows that 
certain businesses are "Natural Monopo- 
lies/' — that is, they are monopolies in their 
very nature, by the law of their being. Such 
are all railways — such the postal business — 
such gas and water supply for cities. All ex- 
perience proves beyond a doubt that they always 
combine and consolidate. 

Where Combination is possible, Competition 
is not possible. Hence Natural Monopolies, 
or Public Utilities, are the proper field for 
public activity, and Competitive businesses the 
proper field for private activity. 

Public Ownership of Railways seems 
clearly the first practical step for Democrats 
to take in this Trust Business. The reason 
is simple. It deprives the Trusts of their most 
deadly weapon. It takes his pistol from the 
robber, his jimmy from the burglar. With 
no Secret Rebates on Railways the Power 

53 



Democracy and Trusts. 

which built up Standard Oil would vanish; 
Chicago University might get no more mil- 
lions; and honest men might have a chance to 
live. 

Aside from that, the measure is an excel- 
lent one on general principles. 

Look at our Post Office, for instance. Let- 
ters were not always carried by the Govern- 
ment. It used to be done like the carrying of 
parcels or the sending of telegrams. If it 
were not a Public business to-day, we would 
probably have a monopoly like Western Union 
Telegraph. Letters would cost about ten 
cents, just as telegrams cost twenty-five cents. 
And if the Government tried to put a war-tax 
on, they would simply throw it on the people, 
as they do now. 

So much for the Railways. 

Now for Trusts themselves; Trusts like 
Standard Oil. They are Monopolies, and they 
are Dishonest from the word Go. 

My remarks must be construed as against a 
system; not against any person. 

In their private capacity many Trustees may 

54 



Democracy and Trusts. 

be churchly, charitable and philanthropic. 
In many ways they have done great good. 
But in his official capacity the Oil King is a 
legalized thief. 

And right here let me say that their Judas 
mixture of philanthropy and business has done 
no real good to either. They are Hypocrites. 
People say, naturally, "Such truly good men 
can do no wrong/ ' 

Other business men seeing how these thieves 
thrive, and occupy the chief places in the 
synagogue, naturally follow in their footsteps. 
In this way, by wrecking business morality 
and debauching common honesty, Standard 
Oil stands before the people an unmitigated 
evil and a public curse. 

Furthermore, the actual crimes they have 
committed are treason against the people: 
against all the people. 

I do not see how any Republican can stand 
sponsor for them. Lincoln always put the 
Man before the Dollar. They never do. 
Lincoln was eminently and always Honest. 
They never are. There isn't an ounce of real 
honest manhood in the Nine Trustees. They 

55 



Democracy and Trusts. 

are a disgrace to the very name of American 
Citizen. 

If they could be adjudged traitors, then their 
millions might be confiscated for the public 
good. The Oil King might be even put in 

jail. That would do some good. It would 
do the other inmates good to have such a 

talented man (?) among them. It might raise 

the tone of society there. 

We are dealing with a system that has 
wound its slimy coils around us like a snake. 
Standard Oil is the head of that snake. 

The way to kill a snake is to crush its 
head. 

I have tried to be moderate in my re- 
marks, but to read the pages of Lloyd is enough 
to make the blood of every American boil in 
his veins. They stand before the people in 
Lloyd's pages a whited sepulchre full of dead 
men's bones. 

Every State, except Utah, I guess, is full of 
brand-new Anti-Trust laws. But the first and 
real Anti-Trust law was handed down to 
Moses by the Supreme Judge of the Universe 
about four thousand years ago 

56 



Democracy and Trusts, 

We don't need any new laws. Why, if a 
sneak thief should enter your house and steal 
your property, would you rush up to the capital 
to have an elegant new law enacted — or would 
you nab him and drag him to the. nearest 
police-station ? 

Had the notorious Jesse James band of 
robbers cleared over four hundred million dol- 
lars, their plunder could not have demoral- 
ized the people as much. 

There would have been at least open bold- 
ness in their act. The wealth of the Oil King 
stands for no such courageous dishonesty. It 
stands for Free Competition Crushed, Legis- 
lators bribed, Business Morality destroyed. 

This, notwithstanding many points in their 
favor — they pay fairly good wages — their 
ability and their system are marvelous, though 
they keep no books. They have effected in- 
credible economy in production. 

I have mentioned their Economy of Truth. 

In the Oil King's sworn testimony no lies 
appear. I say they do not appear; but a little 
search discloses them. 

57 



Democracy and Trusts. 

A man once agreed to sell Barnum a cherry- 
colored cat for twenty-five dollars. He de- 
livered it while the cashier was too busy to 
open the basket, though the cashier paid the 
money. . 

Barnum opened the basket and had a beau- 
tiful black cat to add to his Museum. Well, 
some cherries are black. The entire trans- 
action was a fraud, but had an element of 
humor in it which Barnum appreciated. 
There is no Comedy in Standard Oil. Nothing 
but Tragedy. 

Certainly it is not in the spirit of free men 
to stand helpless and amazed before one man; 
a gentleman, if I may call him so, not worthy 
the name of American. 

Their entire policy is to restrict production, 
crush free competition and kill the very spirit 
of Democracy. 

Take their howl of Over-Production, for 
instance. 

It has been proven that the Coal Combine 
of Pennsylvania alone restricts production of 
coal, ten million tons a year. By recent testi- 

58 



Democracy and Trusts. 

mony of the President of the Ontario and 
Western Railway, coal could be sold in New 
York City for about two dollars a ton. 

Why, if the farmers of America were to 
combine in this heartless way, the starvation 
that would follow would bring the people up 
in arms. The effect would be immediate and 
direct. The effect of the Oil Combine is not 
so direct, but the effect of the Coal Combine 
is nearly so, and the final outcome of all these 
combines combined, no man can foresee. 

It does not need a prophet, though, to see 
that if they go on in their criminal way, with 
neither let nor hindrance, the light of Liberty 
and of Democracy will fail — and once put out 
that flame, I know not where is that Prome- 
thean fire which shall that light relume. 

Their dastardly and infamous schemes are 
only equalled by their impudence of monu- 
mental brass, asserting that there is Over-Pro- 
duction of Oil, or Coal, or Meat, and then 
conspiring to restrict Production. 

There is Over-Production ! Yet ten million 
dollars a year are spent in Charity in the great- 
est city in our land. There is Over-Produc- 

59 



Democracy and Trusts. 

tion! Too much Meat! Yet men and wo- 
men and children are starving in New York. 
We have produced too much of the good things 
of life! Yet one out of every ten in the Im- 
perial City must be buried as a Pauper! 

The only Over-Production at present is that 
of Trustees and their millions. And they limit 
Production that their profits may not be 
limited. 

They stand before Almighty God and as- 
sert that they know best how much Oil, or 
Coal, or Meat shall be produced for His people. 
They grind the faces of the poor by producing 
an artificial scarcity themselves. That's what 
they produce — Scarcity, Poverty and Hard 
Times. 

The future historian writing of our times 
must surely be struck with wonder at a system 
causing Over-Production of such amazing re- 
sults. The cowardly cruelty of the business 
man who could so plunder his fellow-men by 
means of the Secret Rebate — his consummate 
dramatic ability, who could so fool investigat- 
ing committees in the part of the Helpless 

60 



Democracy and Trusts. 

Imbecile — his truly prodigal munificence as a 
church-member who could so endow Univer- 
sities with millions (of other people's money). 

From what has been said you will readily 
see that a free American citizen cannot engage 
in the Oil business without permission of the 
Oil King. 

In other words, free Americans are not free, 
and this is the very heart of the matter. We 
have a King, striking in the dark at Freedom. 
The King of Oil our Ruler is. The richest 
person in the world. Also the most powerful. 
Greatest, richest, meanest of mankind. 

No crowned monarch to-day wields the 
tremendous power that is exercised by him. 
Power that is disastrous, secret, and deadly. 

Yet this is the Democracy whose people 
fought and conquered under Washington! 
The free people for whom the blood of Lincoln 
was shed! Among us still are Veterans of 
the Grand Army of the Republic who marched 
to victory under Grant! 

And we are all carried around in the vest 



6i 



Democracy and Trusts. 

pocket of a dastardly hypocrite in a Fifth 
Avenue Palace! 

The New York Sun, in its editorials, Jan- 
uary 29th, contains the following indictment 
of the National Convention against Trusts. 
It says: "Mr. John D. Archbold, Vice-Presi- 
dent of Standard Oil, gives this pithy descrip- 
tion of the makers of the Anti-Trust Hulla- 
baloo : 'The outcry against Trusts does not 
come from the great industrial classes; but 
from impracticable sentimentalists, yellow 
journals and political demagogues.' 

Well, one good turn deserves another. Let 
us see if we can frame an Indictment against 
the Oil King — a man whose name will go to 
other times linked with one virtue and a hun- 
dred crimes. 

I believe this to be a simple statement of 
facts : 

The Oil King is also America's King; not 
in name but in fact. His power is absolute. 
There is none among our Republican rulers 
to say him nay. 

As our King we have allowed him to do 
certain deeds, any one of which would have 

62 



Democracy and Trusts. 

plunged us instantly into war with any nation 
on earth, if done by that nation. 

Let his perjury pass now — but let us men- 
tion, for example, the fact that he has caused 
certain American citizens to be shot in cold 
blood in the Cceur d'Alene mines. For ex- 
ample, he has caused to be deposited in the 
National City Bank about two hundred million 
dollars of the people's money. 

Lyman Gage, at Washington, has approved 
of this for the honor of the thing, getting 
nothing else whatever. These hundred mil- 
lions are then loaned by the King "on call," 
at about 25 per cent, a year. 

For example, he has caused citizens like 
George Rice to be persecuted in business by 
every conceivable species of villainy. In any 
country in the world (except America) Mr. 
Rice would have the protection of America, 
while he carried on an honest business. 

On these three counts the Oil King stands 
indicted before the country as a Murderer, a 
Robber, a Standard Oil Magnate. I don't 
know which is worse. Nor do I understand 



63 



Democracy and Trusts. 

how the Republican party can stand for any 
such system as he represents. 

When the Nestor of that party, the venerable 
Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, has solemnly 
warned them against Imperialism abroad, 
surely we may warn them of worse at home. 

And by the way, Chauncey Depew says: 
"The Republican Platform consists of two 
words — Glory and Gold." 

Well, by their fruits we may know them, 
and judging by their fruits and oil — their 
Platform seems more like — Greed; Green- 
Gage and Grease! 

It might be well for the Oil King to con- 
sider a few facts, calmly and without passion. 
Let him not lose his head. The last King to 
do that was Charles I. 

His main protection has been his Secrecy 
and his Infernal Hyprocrisy. 

Let the people once awaken to the full 
knowledge of his crimes, and he will be shat- 
tered as by a stroke of lightning! 

Should the people be moved with righteous 



64 



Democracy and Trusts. 

indignation against the Nine Trustees, they 
would be crushed like eggshells! 

Should the veterans of the Grand Army of 
the Republic, old and scarred by battle as they 
are, should they take the field against the 
entire power of Standard Oil, it would be wiped 
out of existence like some vile reptile! 

Why, the American people stand before the 
world to-day unconquered and unconquerable ! 
In the days of '76 they defeated England, the 
mightiest nation in the world ! In the War of 
the Rebellion they abolished Slavery, the 
mightiest institution in our land! 

The mind can scarce conceive the glorious 
deeds remaining to be done by this Democracy 
• — by a free people working together. A people 
whose trust is in each other here. A people 
whose trust and faith, both here and for here- 
after, are placed in the Eternal God. Then 
may our country be again, "The hope of all 
who suffer, the dread of all who wrong." 



THE END. 



65 



LofC. 



SOME OPINIONS CONCERNING 

People and Property. 



By EDWIN B. JENNINGS. 



"Your book is a very clear exposition of the proposi- 
tions treated. It merits a large sale. It clearly points 
out the position which every person, unless he be con- 
nected with a Trust, should occupy." — Hon. Milton 
Smith, Denver, Colo. 

"This book shows the influence of the writings oi 
Henry George, to which the author frequently refers 
and which he highly commends. The spirit in which 
he writes is excellent. One of his remedies, public 
ownership of railways, we can heartily endorse. 

"But it is not enough that natural monopolies should be 
owned by the people. We should abolish every special 
privilege." — From lengthy review in National Single 
Taxer. 

"A most interesting and instructive discourse upon 
the crowning and most oppressive evil of the times. It 
should be read by all who desire to vote intelligently 
upon one of the greatest issues of the day." — Hon. 
Charles Gulling, Reno, Nev. 

67 



People and Property. 

"Mr. Jennings says many good things in this little 
volume in simple and direct fashion. Thousands of 
persons whose reading in sociology is limited can read 
this little book with pleasure and considerable profit." — 
From lengthy review in Springfield Daily News, Spring- 
field, Mass. 

"I hasten to express my deep appreciation of the ex- 
cellence of the book. Many of the truths so concisely 
and attractively stated have been to me a source of much 
edification. It is an interesting and valuable vade 
mecum of economic doctrine; and merits the careful 
study of every citizen who is interested in the perpetua- 
tion of our institutions and the prosperity of the people." 
— Hon. John Gilmore Boyd, New York. 

"The book is concise and strong. The reasoning is 
sound. It only needs to be read to do much good." — 
Helen M. Gougar, La Fayette, Ind. 

"Socialists will find in the first half of Mr. Jennings' 
monograph, a simple but quite adequate exposition of 
the conditions which prevail in the modern social system. 
The book is brightly written and often sparkles with 
humor." — Springfield Union, Springfield, Mass. 

"A valuable book. Well-written and full of interest- 
ing data. You ought to have a complimentary return 
after the public once understand its merits." — Hon. F. 
S. Monett, Columbus, Ohio. 

"Most interesting and valuable. You call things by 
their right names. Your discussion of our evils goes 

68 



People and Property. 

to their springs in the bad motives under which our 
present industrial system is being operated. ,, — H. D. 
Lloyd, Boston, Mass. (Author of "Wealth Against 
Commonwealth.") 

"Am deeply impressed with the book. It should be 
read by every thinking citizen in our land." — Hon. 
Wm. Sulzer, Washington, D. C. 

"Your book should be in the hands of every American 
who has the welfare of his country at heart." — D. J. 
Curtis, Springfield, Mass. (Manufacturer and Con- 
tractor.) 

"I think it goes to the very root of the evil. If widely 
circulated it would carry conviction to the minds of the 
most skeptical." — Hon. Matthew F. Donohue, New 
York. 

"I regard the book as a great work which comes be- 
fore the public at the right time." — B. M. Weaver, New 
York. » (J. B. and J. M. Cornell Iron Works.) 

"Exceedingly well written. Abounds in unexpected 
humor. A valuable contribution to the literature on 
Trusts." — Hon. Albert Bach, New York. (Late Pres. 
Medico-Legal Society: Asst. Corporation Counsel, etc.) 

"It interests me very much. There is freshness and 
unconventionality about it. It will stimulate thinking. 
Your aim is right, and you have got some solid truths 
and facts underneath you." — Philip S. Moxom, D.D., 
Springfield, Mass. 

69 



People and Property. 

"Handsomely brought out, and contains a good many 
gems of thought." — Hon. Geo. S. Bowen, Chicago, 111. 

"Well-written. Many strong facts put together 
forcibly and logically. It is high time that these Trusts 
and infernal Combinations were crushed out." — Moses 
Sweetser, New York. (Independent Oil Producer.) 

"Mr. Jennings' address was greatly enjoyed and appre- 
ciated. The author has a clear and keen perception of 
the subject. He presents it in such a manner as to com- 
pel his hearers to share his interest." — J. S. Case, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. (Pres. Brooklyn Chautauqua Alumni.) 

"The pleasing and novel way in which the subject is 
treated (a subject which touches the foundations of 
society) ought to attract many readers. The reader is 
benefited by the thought so well presented in this de- 
lightful volume." — Judge Wm. B. Fleming, Louisville, 
Kentucky. 

"His lecture is an expert handling of a difficult and 
intricate subject. The audience followed with great in- 
terest, and admiration for the effort to right a great 
wrong." — Committee of People's Club, No. i, New 
York. 



70 



Some attractive Books. 



DANGER SIGNALS For New Century Manhood. 

By Edward A. Tabor. A vivid thrilling description of the 
dangers which menace the youth of both sexes, but especially 
young men, in the social, political, business and moral relations of 
the day; together with certain suggested remedies. Cloth, nmo, 
318 pages, with frontispiece, $1.00. 

PEOPLE AND PROPERTY. 

By Edwin B. Jennings. Thisauthor is as original as the late Henry 
George and possesses much of his charm of style. The question 
of trusts and corporations is a burning one and this is a handbook 
on the subject. Cloth, 50 cents; Edition de Luxe, $1.00. 

TQHE TEMPER CURE. 

By Stanley Edwards Johnson. Under the guise of a fascinating 
story, this book teaches a wholesome lesson of self-control. The 
hero discovers a cure for temper, which brings him fame, and the 
community peace. Cloth, daintily produced, 50 cents. 

ONE THOUSAND WAYS TO MAKE MONEY. 

By Page Fox. Every man, woman, boy and girl should read this 
book. It conveys information of use to everyone, and will enable 
those who read it to make an honest livelihood in dozens of 
unthought-of ways. Second Edition. Cloth, i2mo, $1.00. 

THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. 

By Daniel Seelye Gregory, D.D., LL.D. Here the Eastern 
Question is luminously described in its origin and development by 
a master mind. It is by far the ablest and fullest discussion of the 
Turk in Europe extant. The work is equally scholarly and 
interesting. Cloth, i2mo, $1.00. 



MAY BE ORDERED THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER OR FROM 

The 

flbbep Press 

Publishers 

114 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. 



NOV 3D 1900 



